Inaugural Africa One Health Network (AfOHNet) Workshop an outstanding success!

The Inaugural Africa One Health Network (AfOHNet) Workshop 2022 provided AfOHNet members a pan-African networking opportunity for multi-disciplinary engagement with a mission of strengthening disease detection, diagnoses, and reporting in African nations collaborating across the continent. The Workshop included a mixture of keynote panel presentations, dedicated thematic sessions, and lively discussions and debates on the challenges that impact building an integrated, non-duplicative One Health scientific network by sharing best practices and lessons learned from established One Health initiatives. The 5-day conference also included a hackathon, breakout workshops, and working group panels to enrich regional collaborations, networking, and encourage and promote a new generation of young One Health leadership across Africa.

Attendees were selected via a competitive abstract submission process, with priority given to AfOHNet members. Participation entailed either oral or poster presentations on topics related to the implementation of One Health concepts across Africa.

The primary Workshop Topics addressed included:

  • Track 1: Science Confidence– Making the Connection between One Health Science and Global Health Security

  • Track 2: COVID-19 Resiliency and Recovery Success Stories

  • Track 3: Innovative One Health Approaches to Biosurveillance

  • Track 4: Best Practices of One Health Risk Communication

  • Track 5: Activation of a One Health Network: Moving from Theory to Practice

  • Track 6: New Technologies for Low-Resource Settings